The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-04-15
NAN AS AN AUTHOR.

The social condition oil woman Is an
index of civilization. Her intellectual
advancement has been in direct pro-
portion to the elevation of the race. In
primitive times, she was a slave; in the
age of Greece and Rome, a domestic;
in the era offeudalism, the idol of chiv-
airy; to-day, n queen, sharing with man
the whole kingdom of life. She titled
the soil for the mighty hunters OF Nine
veh, embroidered the purple for Atheni-
an philosophers, and charmed by her
beauty and wit the medieval knights.
Among modern nations her mind has
blossomed into immortal thoughts on
the SUBMITS of authorship.
The intellectual development of
woman has been slow. Whether or
not she was mans equal Mt The outset,
is question for speculation. BE that
as it may, the customs of society have
always placed barriers in the way of
her advancement. Caste is the deadli-
est blight of mind. and that blight fell
upon woman with special force, and
remained upon her centuries after it
had been lifted from man. Her duties
constituted routine demanding pa
tience rather than thought. She work
ed in solitude, and never felt the incen =
tive of competition. Her tasks have
been restricted, and the responsible
ties of the race have rested upon man.
His mind has been trained in the school
of rivalry and great enterprise. War,
commerce, and government have been
his teachers.
Custom creates proprieties. 1t
came to be thought that intellectual
duties would unsex woman, and render
her unfit for the duties of home, and the
doors of institutions of learning were
accordingly closed against her.
These qualifications of caste and
strait-jackets of convent nality were
to be removed before she could rise to
her full height. Greece was not only
then mother of poetry and art, but it
was under her benignant freedom that
woman first overcame the obstacles
that had dulled her intellect and crush
ed her aspirations. Here rose the two
stars that illumined her 'intellectual
night"-Sappho, the lyric poet, and
Aspasia, the woman of thought. As
long as Homer is read, Sappho will be
remembered, and the wisdom of Plato
and craftsmanship of Pericles are for
ever associated with the name of
Aspasia.
But it was not until all social forms
were stirred by the great awakening
of knowledge in the Fourteenth Cen
tury, when thought and scholarship be-
gan to be disseminated through all
grades of society and ceased to be limit
ed to the favored few, that the intellec-
tual development of women as a class
began.
The seat of learning shifted from the
south to the north, among juster men
and stronger women.
In medieval Europe, testers hawks,
hounds, and women were allowed to
mngle with men in the feudal castles.
Over the quarters of beef and ilagons
Of beer she began her education by
listening to the conversation OF men.
The newspaper of that day was con-
versation, and women developed this
power to such perfection that in the
Eighteenth Century, not only poetry
and philosophy but the policy OF the
government were discussed and shaped
around the tables of such women rs
Madame dc Maintenon and Madame
Necker. The keenness, sense, and in
tuition of these takers overcame the
prejudices against them, and during
the period preceding the French Revo-
luton, when all established forms were
giving way before the agitation of new
ideas, woman's mind famed into action,
and she became power in the world
of letters.
Unconsciously she formed a literature
by her correspondence. She wrote of
politics and social life. As a political
writer, the pen of Madame de Stael
was more terrible TO Napoleon than the
sword of any ruler in Europe.
Lady Montaeu mirrored the social
life of the age; her letters are gems Of
art, bright, informal discussions of